The table design/architecture of Microsoft Dynamics GP, as we write the current version is Microsoft Great Plains 9.0, was done back in 1990th by Great Plains Software and what we are discussing here is applicable to the majority of Great Plains Dynamics / eEnterprise versions for MS SQL Server: 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0 and now 9.0.
With so-called Project Green Microsoft is enabling Microsoft Dynamics GP objects for Visual Studio C# or VB.Net developer via web services interface, while the middle-level set of stored procedures is known as eConnect. However you can still use old-good-way of creating your own set of stored procedures to feed in or pull data from Microsoft Great Plains 9.0 databases. If you are new to the subject please be aware that you are not allowed to make a change to existing Great Plains tables the reason is Great Plains Dexterity (now referred as Microsoft Dexterity) uses DYNAMICS.DIC as metadictionary, where all the tables are described and if you make a change to the table it will conflict with what table is known in DYNAMICS.DIC.
SOP, Sales Order Processing module. This is usually where all eCommerce developers start you need to move the order from your e-Commerce application to Microsoft Dynamics GP SOP tables. Here the advice is if you cant afford eConnect create Sales Order and Quote only (do not create Invoice). These documents do not require GL account distribution. Here are your tables: SOP10100 SOP Header and SOP10200 SOP work table. Another advice is have your Great Plains guru setup special SOP Order type, where it doesnt allocate inventory items on the fly. This second advice is not relevant if you are selling services and they are not tracked in inventory module.
Inventory Control. If you deal with so-called inventoried items (sales items, where you track quantities on-hand/allocated/committed by inventory site and across the company). Inventory tables are IV00101 Item master and IV00102 item QTY master table. Usually you have to deal with these two tables only, however in complex cases you can go deeper our recommendation to purchase eConnect licenses if your logic in Inventory module is more complex
Receivables Management. From this module you just need customer record: RM00101 Customer master and RM00102 Customer Address Master
Payable Management. This usually goes beyond eCommerce sales process. In some cases you want to trigger purchasing side of it. If you know Vendor/Item association, take Vendor Master file: PM00200 and then if needed but this is too complicated without eConnect work with Purchase Order Processing module
Distribution Analyzing technique. Ask your GP operators to enter typical transaction and watch how it is distributed in SOP tables.
Posting process. This is usually the duty of the GP end user and in order to do posting you have to go over the borders of eConnect limitations eConnect creates Work documents as a rule
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.comhttp://www.greatplains.com.mxhttp://www.enterlogix.com.br ) We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans, Austin, Kansas City.
